News from the Nurse...
FEBRUARY IS NATIONAL HEART DISEASE MONTH
Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the National Education Program (NCEP) guidelines, 50% of people who have a heart attack have normal cholesterol.
Here are some very interesting facts about heart disease…
1. We only need 10 minutes of brisk exercise a day to reduce heart attack risk by nearly 50%. Thirty minutes cuts the risk by 75%
2. There is a 50% reduction in heart attack risk 1 year after a smoker quits the habit.
3. Spending more than 4 hours a day in front of a computer or television can double ones risk of a heart attack.
4. While genetics plays a role, one international study found that 90% of the risks associated with heart disease are within our control (blood pressure, physical activity, smoking, diet). Small changes can make a big difference in your heart health!
5. Best way to survive a heart attack is recognize the symptoms, call 911, and chew (not swallow) an aspirin while waiting.
6. Recognize the symptoms: Over 70% of women have flu-like symptoms and NO chest pain at all! Others can feel chest pressure, squeezing or tightening that can radiate down the left arm, jaw or between the shoulders. Many people have nausea, indigestion, lightheadedness, sweating, shortness of breath and exhaustion.
7. Stress is considered an underlying factor in 70% of heart disease. Research shows that 1 single episode of anger increases the risk of a heart attack by 230%.
8. Best time to get to the hospital after the onset of heart attack symptoms is 1 hour. The typical time is 3-4 hours. The more time it takes, the more heart muscle dies.
9. Cardiovascular disease starts in your teens and 20’s.
News from the Speech Room...
Crafting Beautiful Speech and Language
Arts and crafts are multisensory experiences that are ideal for language learning. Research has shown experiences that engage children emotionally with familiar adults lead to better learning. These experiences should occur in “natural” settings, such as during play or while shopping at the grocery store. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often use arts and crafts to target a variety of skills in therapy and create a naturalistic setting. Here are some tips for inspiring language while crafting with your little ones.
- Modeling –As the adult, model the type of language you would like to hear in your child. For example, if you want your child to learn the color red, instead of saying, “What color is this?” try “Ooo! A red pompom! Red pompom on the paper. Glue it on the red paper.” This is especially beneficial for early language learners.
- Expand and Extend – Listen to what the child says. You can expand his/her/their utterance by inserting adult grammar. For example, if the child says, “Cut paper,” you can say, “That’s right! I am cutting the paper.” To extend your child’s utterance, add new information to what your child has said. For example, if the child says, “Paper,” you say, “I cut the blue paper. I cut out two squares.”
- Talk about Basic Concepts – Arts and crafts incorporate a ton of basic concepts, such as colors (e.g. red, green, purple), sizes (e.g. long, small, heavy), shapes (e.g. square, round, curvy), etc. While creating your masterpieces, make sure to request and comment on the activity using these early building blocks for language.
- Following Directions – Try to create a project step-by-step. For early language learners, avoid incorporating too many directions at once or over-complicating the directions by making them too “wordy.” Add visual aids (such as a video or pictures), gestures (e.g. pointing), hand-over-hand, modeling, and repetition of verbal directions if your child needs extra support. For more advanced language learners, include positional words (e.g. over, under, next to), temporal concepts (e.g. before, after, while), and 2 to 3-step directions to encourage receptive language learning.
- Verbs, Verbs, Verbs! – Crafting activities are loaded with verbs! Action words such as “cut,” “tape,” “tear,” and “color” are all critical for kindergarten readiness. For advanced language learners, make sure to model grammatical markers they may be working on, such as –ing, -ed, third person –s, and irregulars.
- Describing – Use the senses to describe your supplies. Tape and glue are sticky; the scissors are sharp and dangerous; cotton balls are soft and fluffy, etc. Also, have your child describe his/her/their finished product! For example, “The flower I drew is beautiful! I made the stem long and green, and the petals are colorful…”
- Retell – Have your child recall the steps that were necessary to make his/her/their creation. Model and prompt transitional words, such as “first,” “next,” “then,” and “last.”
News from the Math Room....
Our intermediate students are now all learning about fractions! A fun book for younger students is Eating Fractions by Bruce McMillan. Children are introduced to halves, thirds, fourths and eights. Funny And Fabulous Fraction Stories by Dan Greenberg is suitable for children in grades 3 – 6. Reading these books will help students become more familiar with fractions while reading an enjoyable story.
An enjoyable interactive web site www.aplusmath.com website has information for all ages. There are games and flashcards you can print and a fabulous section on fractions for your children to play. Please remember to encourage your little one to practice his or her fact fluency on Reflex Math!
News from Resource Room...
Study Habits! Start them while they're young! :)
Here are my top 3 studying tips, which we are working on in Resource Room!
1) Make flashcards with your child if I have not provided them from the Resource Room.
2) Use distributive practice, rather than cramming the night before the test. Studying flashcards with your child 5-10 minutes each night for 2 weeks prior to the test will help your child develop confidence that he or she knows the material.
3) Use a strategy called "Folding In" with the flashcards... Here's what you do... If you have a stack of 30 flashcards for the test, start with helping your child master 3 of the cards than fold-in a 4th card until mastery... then a 5th until mastery.... a 6th .... and so on! Before you know it, your son or daughter will know the whole set of flashcards!
News from the Reading Room....
The Power of Read-Alouds
The read aloud is the gift that keeps on giving—leading to student gains in vocabulary (Beck & McKeown, 2001), comprehension strategies and story schema (Van den Broek, 2001), and concept development (Pinnell & Fountas, 2011).
Regardless of the age, children are never too old for a read aloud. With World Read Aloud Day upon us, consider adding a daily read aloud to your routine. Make it fun and keep it light. Some suggestions to keep your child engaged during are read alouds are:
· Funny voices: You can do it. Deep voice for Grandpa; teeny voice for the mouse. You’ve got it in you, and kids love it.
· Echo Read: you read a phrase, and the child echos it back.
· Chorus Read: for emerging readers who can decode (or read) the text on their own), read the text as a chorus–together.
· Read in a microphone.
· Record yourself reading.
· Sing read.
· Phone call read: have a loved one call and read a book over the phone– sure, you both have to have the same book so the child can follow along, but that’s not too hard.
· Facetime/Skype read: have a loved one Facetime/Skype read so you can see each other
· Audio recording: Listen to a book on tape or on-line! There are tons at most libraries, and it’s great for kids to hear another adult reading to them sometimes. Visit www.storylineonline.net to hear famous people reading aloud children’s books.
· Pet read: read to a pet–real or imagined.
· Take turns: you read a page, then he reads a page
Grundy Ave School
Website: www.sachem.edu/Grundy
Location: 950 Grundy Avenue, Holbrook, NY, USA
Phone: 631-471-1820
Facebook: facebook.com/GrundyAvenueElementarySchool
Twitter: @GrundyAve